


Come What May

by linkzeldi



Category: Persona 3
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-16
Updated: 2018-07-14
Packaged: 2018-09-17 20:29:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 21,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9342092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/linkzeldi/pseuds/linkzeldi
Summary: Minato is finally revived from Elizabeth's efforts, only to see the world has completely changed and moved on without him. Will he be able to win back his old friends?





	1. Elizabeth

The sun was beating down on the both of them on graduation day but he could not feel its warmth. She handled his head like some fragile thing, slowly lowering it into her lap. He had been to deal with his hair that morning, but he felt her fingers comb their way through his hair. Her well manicured nails brushed against the side of his ear, as she cleared his hair away from it. Then she leaned close and whispered into his naked ear.

_“Can you forgive me? No, you don’t have to answer that. Either way… I have no intention of letting go. We’ll have to build our love from scratch again.”_

He didn’t want to either, he wanted to say. His lips twitched and his tongue felt limp. How could he even tell she was so close, when his glossy eyes glanced over to her all he could see was a white blur, and the glare of the sun behind it. He could hear her words so close though, he could feel the hear of her breathing. In the distance, those were footsteps, and familiar voices.

He remembered and all this time he was waiting. He managed to make it to this day, to keep his promise. 

“Can you hear that? Everyone else is worried about you too.”

The bright sunlight and the warmth of Mitsuru’s arms. He was getting sleepier. His eyelids felt heavy.

“Come what may, we’ll be together.”

That was the last thing he was able to hear. Silence, even though he could see the shadows of all of his friends around him.

“Mitsuru…" He finally said, but the rest of his sentence died with his voice. He tried to speak again but could not hear his own words.  

 _“Why aren’t they saying anything?”_  
  
_“Everyone. Where are you?”_

_“Talk to me, say something. Is anyone there? This place is so empty. It’s quiet.”_

_“So I guess, this is the end, huh? I kept my promise so, is it okay if I die right here?”  
_  
 _"Oh, I forgot. Mitsuru was going to teach me to ride her motorcycle finally."_  
  
He had no idea, if those were his final words, or just his thoughts. He had lost even that basic control. He did not know even, if he had just died peacefully falling asleep in her arms right there, or it had taken him a long painful time to die after running out of energy. Did his friends realize right away, or not until it was too late?

 _"It's too bad..."_ He muttered apathetically. A phrase he had gotten used to muttering ever since his parents died. 

Perhaps it was all that time fighting shadows, or the way he had seen others die around him, beginning with his parents, then Shinjiro, Ikutsuki, Takeharu, Chidori and ending with Ryoji (the avatar that remained of him)  all of them disappeared in bloody ways right in front of his eyes. Yet, death had come to greet him like an old friend.

It was more like a dream than anything, if he were forced to describe it. It was more than he had expected, which was to say nothing at all. He did not get to see any of the people listed above again, it figured because that might have made his death, his sacrifice a good thing.

He was alone. There was no destination in front of him, but he felt compelled to walk forward anyway. He continued to walk, unfettered. Occasionally, he heard a voice calling out behind him, but he did not turn around. He did not recognize the name, or the voice that was calling it. As he walked he began to lose things, the sunset on the room, his second worst day on the bridge, the tower that extended from the school, his first day in the dorm, and finally the worst day on that bridge. Even the smashed car parts, and the blood pooling underneath them an image he thought he could never let go of.

It was gone though, and he could only just barely feel its absence. Only once did he think of stopping his forward march. He reached up with his hand to inspect his face. It was completely smooth, his body, if that’s what it was, had probably forgotten what his face looked like. He felt more like a castoff, some shadow of a former self, then a real being. Yet, he still had consciousness, he could still hear that name calling behind him.

_“Minato.”_

Then one day he realized, what if it was his name. He turned around to look when he heard it being called again.

 _"Minato, Minato, Minato."  
_  
 _Hmm, that's me._  
 _Wait, who is me?_  
 _I'm me, right?_  
 _Was I always me? Who was I before?_  
Oh, that's right, I was Minato but now I'm not. 

Just as there was nothing in front of him though, there was nothing behind him. Even in the nothingness though, he heard the sound of a door closing.   
  
He was so tired. His eyes were even heavier. He realized though, this is the first time in a long time he had felt something like having eyes, or even having eyelids. Minato struggled to open them up, even if all he would see around him was darkness, it was better than the shadowy sensation he had felt in the place of a body before this point.   
  
He wanted to see the face of the voice calling out his name. He struggled with every fiber of his being, until finally the sky cracked open and he saw two slits of light.   
  
Minato woke up in the arms of another.

“Mi….. Mitsuru.”  
  
 _She's not me, but she is me. An irreplaceable part of me._

For a moment he wondered if all he had experienced up to this point had not just been a dream he had taken on a lazy day in the middle of the school rooftop. Then he looked up and saw a blonde woman dressed in a blue formal dress, staring down at him. Okay, there went the ‘this was a dream the whole time’ option.

He blinked once and then found himself overwhelmed by his sudden ability to feel again, and all the sensations that went with it, what he was sitting on was soft and plush. One of his arms still hung limply at the side of his body, he reached out and felt there was an ornate design printed upon the leather. In the distance he heard the sound of a piano playing. When he looked out the window he was given the impression that the entire room was moving but could not make out the outside world to confirm it. His eyes glanced to the side for a moment, a table with a blue cloth thrown over it. No, this entire room was blue, a soft kind of blue.

He was sitting inside a velvet room, and the lady above him was dressed like an attendant. She reached down suddenly and pinched his nose.  

“It’s rude to call out one woman’s name while laying in the lap of another, you know,” She said, before relinquishing his nose after he started to turn a shade of red.

Minato coughed, his lungs coming to life suddenly as he hacked and spat and wrestled back and forth. Before coming once again to a rest, feeling his breathing even out. “Elizabeth...do not do that.”

“That’s more like it. You were beginning to sound like, what’s the word for it? A playing boy.”  
  
“No!” He said immediately. She had gotten another thing about the outside world wrong again. He remembered that, and snorted. Familiarity, what came with bonds of the past, it gave strength to his otherwise limp body. He sat up and looked at her. “Pft… Fine, maybe a little. How are you, Elizabeth?”

“For a long time I felt empty, but at the moment with you right here I’m feeling quite fulfilled instead.”

“I’m happy to see you too, I guess…” He said drily. His eyes were already beginning to droop. He could only see out of one of them, his hair had fallen in front of the other. “I’d be happier if you could explain, you know.” He gestured vaguely with his hand to the room around them.

“The velvet room, you’ve been here before, or have you developed amnesia as a side effect of death? That’s really worrying.”

“No, I’m not. A hero with amnesia don't you think that's a little cliche.” He really had died. He knew that for sure now. He could hardly call it good news, but at least it was part of the bigger picture he was struggling to comprehend. “I know this is the velvet room but why am I here? The nose said I couldn’t come back after my contract was up, and it looks different anyway.”  
  
She gestured behind her, a familiar pose. “That’s because the room is no longer providing residence to you. The importance it once had, and the power you once possessed both moved on, you are but a temporary guest.”

“So I didn’t… come here because I died?” He said piecing it together slowly.

“No, you’re here because I wanted to keep you safe after you came back to life. My sister picked me up while we were in the middle of nowhere, she really is so thoughtful Arisato.”

Minato put two things together right then, as he held his hand directly against his chest, that right now he was indeed alive, and that Elizabeth politely calling him by his last name had not been the voice calling out to him.  
  
He stood up and stretched his legs. It was amazing he could still feel them. He strutted about like a tom cat in early morning for a moment before looking back to her. “I should thank her for that, and uh, hanks to you to… So, can I go now?”

“You can leave whenever you like, but as I’ve said before the velvet room has moved on from you. Once you leave you won’t ever be able to come back.”

He walked to the door and looped his hand around the inside handle. He opened it, and the dimly lit room filled with light. His toes tensed as he readied himself to step forward. “I guess it’s rude to leave so soon but, there’s someone…”

“Oh, by no means do I want to keep you here forever Arisato. However, I would suggest taking at least a moment, I think if you walk around like that somebody might stare.”

Minato paused suddenly and looked back to her turning his head around in a dramatic moment. What did he look like, had coming back to life had consequences, like in that story about the ape’s fingers. He did not utter a word of his concern though, he was always like this, quiet when he was feeling the most emotion. His hand reached out and grabbed a great blue sheet that had been thrown over a mirror.

When it fell he saw what was to be expected, himself. He did not look like a zombie, nor did he an abomination. The sunlight had hit him just fine earlier, so that ruled out being a vampire. Still it took him a moment to accept the reflection as his. For one the man staring back at him was taller, his hair was longer, almost to an unmanageable length as it fell over his eye and covered his shoulders. He was still just as thin though, a little bit disappointing.

Elizabeth told him that others might stare, Minato still did not understand why until his gaze traveled downward and then it registered all at once. He looked to Elizabeth, and saw Elizabeth was looking down too, and only then did he use the sheet to cover up. His hair long like this, and wrapped only in a sheet, he must have looked like a saint right now he mused.

He turned around to see Elizabeth holding a pair of scissors. “If you’re worried about how you look young master, the room always provides it’s residents with enough to fulfill their needs.”

Minato took a step back. “Elizabeth, I don’t think I like the idea of letting you near my neck with scissors. Why are you getting closer? Maybe I like my hair like this, Elizabeth, no!” He stumbled backwards and could only look on in horror.  
  
The next thing he knew he was sitting politely on the floor, wearing a button up shirt he had borrowed from the room and a pair of dress pants. Apparently they only stocked one kind of outfit that made you look like a hotel concierge, but he passed on the jacket as he did not want to dress too much like those from the velvet room. He had even procured a pair of velvet colored boxers, and they were so soft but he did not want to think about that right now. Elizabeth currently sat behind him, navigating his hair with a pair of scissors.

“Whoospie!” Minato cringed, her navigation was quite treacherous it seemed as he watched from the corner of his eye a large chunk of hair fall to the floor.

Standing in front of the mirror again he groaned. “Short. Too short.”  She had even made it even, that wasn’t the style, or maybe it was now. He realized besides a vague guess from the changes in his body, he had no idea about the passage of time.  
  
He walked over to the door once more and stood inside the frame, not yet stepping out. He looked back to her inevitably.   
  
“Elizabeth how long was I… uh…”

“Dead?”

“Yeah, that.”

“I can explain more later.”  
  
“Are you really going to explain though? Like about how I’m not dead any more and how exactly that was accomplished… because you folks in the velvet room don’t really like talking simply about everything lots of metaphors y’know that junk about truth and accepting yourself-”

“Are you stalling?” Elizabeth asked directly, appearing suddenly behind him as he turned back to look at her.

Minato snorted again, in good humor. “A little.” Elizabeth snorted too. He felt tempted to smirk, just a little bit. They could almost be having what the outside world would call a moment. Then Elizabeth pushed him out the door.

†

  
“I’m cold again,” Minato commented. He was alone though, so there was no helping something like that.

“Well most corpses are cold you know. If you want I can give you a warm hug, then!” Elizabeth piped up next to him. He was not alone, he would have preferred it but that was not the reality. After falling, in the middle of the street. He walked alone until he found a park bench. Then sat for a moment to gather his thoughts, only to see Elizabeth next to him.

The woman was so strange he did not even jump. No he had come to expect strange things around her. “So you’re not staying behind in the room.”  
  
“You’re the one who asked, how I revived you. In order to do that, I first had to leave the room. I can’t go back now either.”

“That’s sad.”  
  
“I don’t think so, I have you after all.”

She sounded so cheerful. Minato knew though, that leaving your home must have been a sad thing. He knew it in theory at least. He had never experienced it, that day on the bridge he had left that notion behind entirely. No, he had had it taken from him. He was never to reclaim it, not from any individual.

“Mitsuru,” He said finally. That name again. He wondered if Elizabeth would get mad, he was hesitant. Finally his head turned around slowly and looked at her. With both eyes now, that his hair was no longer blocking half of his face.  
  
“I know,” She said simply. Then he felt his cheeks being pinched. “It’s like you said, you’re a cute little playboy. I might not know a lot about your world, but I understand what it means when a gentleman refuses to let a lady enter his room.”

That was true he had refused her. That was before Mitsuru had even, she had just told him about her engagement. She had confided in him of all people, but the two of them were just friends.

“Then why?”  
  
“I wanted you to be happy. The same way you wanted the rest of your friends to be happy."

“We’re friends… didn’t I sign a contract though? Isn’t it bad, to escape from that?”

“Well if you think about it, a person who helps you escape from a contract… that would make me your lawyer instead right?”  
  
“Ahh… Yeah.... sounds good.” He blinked. Then finally broke free of her hold only to stare at his own feet. “I am still little. I haven’t grown at all, huh.”

“Well to be fair you were dead for three years!” Elizabeth, ever the optimist.   
  
“Yeah…Wait, three years?” Minato had been leaning back on the bench, as a part of his natural slouch that he was just now trying to get back in the hang of, and he suddenly stumbled forward and leaned in putting all his attention on Elizabeth. She only nodded to confirm, the happy look on her face told Minato that his concerns had not quite reached her. He leaned back on the bench again, laying his head so far back it was parallel to the sky almost. The sun was too bright, if he had really spent three years in darkness, than it was way too bright. He raised his hand in front of his face in order to block it out.

He felt like he could grab the sun for a moment, but that was just an optical illusion he knew. He had barely been able to accomplish one miracle in his life, he was not that special. “So everybody’s moved on from fighting shadows, huh? I haven’t even graduated highschool, jeez what a drag.” While Minato was already figuring out the logistics of that, Elizabeth appeared in the corner of his vision.

“Not exactly. In fact they’re a part of the shadow operatives now.”

Minato raised an eyebrow. He did not see how that was much different than the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, but remained quiet about that. He had a more pressing concern. “We were all supposed to stop hunting shadows though…” He trailed off, memories making his head start to hurt.

“Well, I think even most of them are starting to. When I met them at least.” Minato raised his eyebrows in shock again, prompting Elizabeth to nod in confirmation that she had in fact met them. “Akihiko wants to travel the world and become stronger, Junpei coaches a team I think the sport is called based ball? Yukari is an actress working for the featherman rangers, Ken is a middle school soccer star. A lot of them decided to leave after our run in. Aigis is one of the only permanent shadow fighting members.”

His forehead creased in worry. He was sitting forward again, but still staring at that hand. It looked almost empty without an evoker in it. “That’s not-” once again he had a hard time finding the words, “Akihiko didn’t want to live only for physical strength. Aigis didn’t want to live to only fight shadows. Who started all of this?”

Before Elizabeth could even reply, he already knew the answer. “Mitsuru…” He muttered again, looking down at that same lonely looking hand of his.

“Boys your age sure do have a one track mind,” Elizabeth said, her hand covering her mouth to muffle a trail of snickers.

Well at least she was attempting to be thoughtful, Minato thought. “Then after all we sacrificed, nothing really changed huh? No, things got worse because I left. I should go join them at least, I owe-owowowie!”

His speech was interrupted by more of Elizabeth’s pinching, this time of his ear. The look on her face was unusually stern. “I already told you your time in the velvet room was over. Even that power you have of the wild card, it passed on to someone else. If you went there you wouldn’t be any help, you can hardly summon a persona.”

He wiggled out of her grasp for the second time. This whole situation, he felt like a fish thrown onto dry land, he was entirely at Elizabeth’s mercy, and yet, she had been the one to save him. “I must sound like an ungrateful brat then, trying to get myself killed a day after I come back to life.”

That was such a strange sentence for him to say. After your best friend became a god of death though, and your school became a tower ascending to the havens, Minato lost all sense of reality. It was strange though, because what he wanted the most right now was to go back to the real world with her.

“She… what about the Kirijo group?”  
  
Elizabeth in front of him shrugged. “That’s outside world business. I’m not some fairy who exists to know everything, you know.”

Minato immediately stood up from the bench he had been sulking on. His old self might have continued sulking but he had his objective in sight. “The two of us need to do some reconnaissance then.”

Elizabeth only crossed her legs and made clear she was comfortable still sitting with one gesture. “I’m not your servant either.” She said with a small _hmmph_ and an upturned nose.

Minato shuffled awkwardly for a moment. His hand gestured emptily in the air, then he grabbed his own arm to restrain that hand. “The two of us need to do some reconnaisance...please?”

She nodded. Minato felt a great relief.

†

“Kirijo group’s struggle to keep it together has corporation head reconsider her plans for a fiance, this is even worse than I thought,” Minato said as he folded a newspaper up.

Reading over his shoulder, Elizabeth gasped. Though Minato wondered if she was just playing along to the mood of the moment. “The corporation might go bankrupt then?”

“Uhh… That too. Who is this Kei Nanjo guy anyway? He sounds like a tool.”  
  
He angrily crumpled the newspaper up instead and shoved it into his pockets, along with his hands. Elizabeth told him whatever he had been holding in his pockets the day he died, regenerated with him when he was ‘revived’ without telling him the specifics of how that worked. He was used to that, but he wished that day he had thought to carry around anything more than spare pocket change. He had even left his cell phone at home, he had been so tired. The newspaper had cost all of his money, but there was still the jinglings of a single stray key in his pocket.

No matter how tired he was he could never forget that.

“Is that him over there?” Elizabeth said pointing out a man who had just stepped off of a motorcycle across the street from the newspaper stand the two of them were standing at. The back of his leather jacket read ‘To the #1’ just like it had in the newspaper photo. It seemed as usual, fortune had plans for Minato.

Minato quickly dove behind the stand. He looked at Elizabeth expecting her to follow, but she merely stared at him. Along with the owner of the stand. “Why don’t you just go talk to him?” She said.

Minato looked away, “You know how I’m quiet a lot.”

“Yes?”

“Well the truth is I don’t have a cool attitude I’m just shy.” It was not a completely serious confession, he simply did not know how to proceed in the current situation and found himself hesitating again. He had faced something similar like this in the past but at the time he had Mitsuru. The only one with him now was Elizabeth - he looked at the empty space where she had been.

“....?”

He peeked his head out slightly to see Elizabeth already walking across the street. He reached a hand out after her frantically to see her pause. “Don’t worry, I’m only going to talk to him.” She said, as she reached into her purse and began fishing for a large book. Minato could only watch in horror at what happened next.

He ran out with a bottle of water borrowed from the stand owner, and knelt in front of the unconscious Nanjo. “That’s not really talking to someone!” He dumped the water over the man’s head, causing his stylized bangs to fall flat on his face. However, he refused to wake up.

“I didn’t hurt him,” Elizabeth said as she sat back on the hood of the man’s car. “I just cast a sleep spell on him. Now you can pretend to be him and meet Mitsuru.”

“I can’t do that, that’s terrible.”

“Then why are you rifling through his belongings?”

Minato pulled out a photograph from the inside of his jacket. It was a signed head shot of the man now sleeping on the ground in front of him. “You’re right, I can’t let Mitsuru get married to a tool like this.” He was not really listening to Elizabeth at this point. He felt a chill, and a phantom sensation tightening around his neck, it almost burned and like something rubbing off. He reacted on instinct, grabbing the man’s scarf that had fallen off of him and throwing it around his neck.

‘#1’ he read from the man’s scarf. He was definitely a tool. He folded that part of the blue scarf into the tie around his neck to hide it, and let the rest flow in the wind behind him. Funny, in a dress shirt and scarf like this he almost looked like Ryoji.

Keys and a cellphone, those could come in handy. Minato made a mental note to return them later, and also beg for the man’s forgiveness on behalf of Elizabeth who probably would not apologize once he woke up. He pointed to the phone to get Elizabeth’s attention.  
  
“You watch him until he wakes up, alright? You have one of these right, so call me when he does.” He was direct as usual. There was already a plan forming in the back of his mind. He would set up a meeting with Mitsuru pretending to be Nanjo until she saw him. Then he would come clean and tell her everything, especially how he was back.

It’s not like he was expecting her to jump into his arms or anything. He just wanted to make sure she was okay, with the shadow operatives, with the Kirijo group, he had left so many things unsettled. Dying like that without telling anybody.  
  
With shaky fingers, he attempted to imitate the personality of an arrogant rich man the best he could, and texted the number listed under Kirijo demanding she meet up with him at once.

Which is how he ended up waiting in the Chagall Cafe. Even though he had paid for it, he had not taken a sip yet from his Pheremone coffee. Not that he was nervous, no why would he be, it was just a simple conversation with a person who thought you were dead.

Minato saw his coffee start to ripple, as the bell rung to anounce a new patron. He could hear her approach in the familiar clack of her heels. He looked back over her shoulder to see -- a fur coat and a cat suit? “Snrrrk.” He could all but suppress the smirk on his face. No matter how much time passed Mitsuru never changed. He could do this, he thought. He could play it cool.

“Mitsuru….” He said as he turned around to face her.

She was looking at her phone, probably attempting to organize three things at once Minato assumed. “Yes, Kei Nanjo right? I’ve only come to put a stop to this engagement business. The board can’t go behind my back with arranging these things anymore.”

“That’s fine, but can you just look at me for a second.”  
  
Mitsuru’s shoulders hefted a sigh, She slid the phone away in some pocket, probably on the coat because Minato could not imagine that phone fitting anywhere on her - anyway he didn’t see exactly because he was focused on keeping his eyes up.

Mitsuru too, raised her eyes and met his exactly. Quiet, so quiet that he could hear the bass from Club Escapade pounding in the background. Perhaps that was just his heartbeat though, pounding within his own ears.

It was Mitsuru who broke the silence, with an impatience click of her tongue. “I’m sorry, was there something you were expecting me to see? Mr. Nanjo?”

It clicked in his mind all at once. Why she was getting engaged again, and why she did not recognize him immediately. She had forgotten about him, like that time immediately after the dark hour ended.  
  
“Nothing I suppose. You can go.”

As she turned around, he merely watched her.

To think, he had once known somebody so beautiful in a past life. THat was over now, he supposed.

He heard a drop fall into his coffee. What? Oh, he was crying, tears were falling from one eye right into his coffee. So much then for playing it cool.

He felt like he was losing control of his own body. Which is why the next thing he said was so foolish.  
  
“Wait!”


	2. Everyone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minato Arisato sees just how much people can change in three years.

“Are you crying?”

“No.”

Minato immediately buried his face into his sleeve. Never before had he expressed such an emotion, so openly in front of another person. Even Mitsuru, even the closest he had come to losing her when her previous fiance was tirading against him in public. The one who had stood up for him then was Mitsuru and not himself.

In fact, she was always the one inching closer to him. The one who held onto his arm. Then what was this now, him, holding onto her by the barest of threads. It was like he had put a damn on his emotions, and now the cracks were formed and everything was pouring out. 

Damn, he was hoping after all this time he could look a little bit cool in front of Mitsuru.

She leaned in closer to him, which made him in response instinctively lean back. Her eyes scrunched  to focus before she announced, “You’re crying.”

  
Minato winced, because those words lacked the softness they were usually said with when they were read with Mitsuru’s voice. Oh, but that was part of the reason why he liked her. He puffed his cheeks out, tilted his head to the side, “I’m not crying, I just have an allergy for pretty girls. Why do you think my parents are trying so hard to arrange a marriage for me? I’d be helpless on my own.”

Sarcasm, the last vanguard of the emotionally apathetic. He managed to clear away the tears clouding his vision, and took one long look at Mitsuru. Then immediately afterwards he pulled at the goggles hanging around his neck and snapped them over his eyes to prevent any more crying shenanigans. He assumed this would be his last look, perhaps the last thing he saw while alive considering the scene he was making right now.

Mitsuru was not wearing the face she wore preceding an execution though (he had seen it once before, the hotsprings, what a chilly memory) , instead her head tilted itself, and lips pursed i mild surprise. From between those lips, series of small chuckles escaped. “Ah-haha, you’re uh… a bit weird you know that?” Mitsuru brushed her hand across her forehead, and in the process her bangs out of the way of her eyes offering a rare sight of both of her eyes at once.

“I…” Minato trailed off, feeling like he had said too much already. This morning he woke up naked in a blue leather seated car, because he came back from the dead, because he before that sacrificed his life to seal an embodiment of death. Of course he knew he was weird.

Mitsuru reached in her breast pocket, and pulled out a handkerchief. It was anagrammed with the logo of the Kirijo corporation (of course it was). When she handed it to him, Minato felt their knuckles brush for a few seconds.

“Listen, when I turned you down as a fiance candidate, it had nothing to do with you. Today, the day I was supposed to interview you, it was a bad day for me.”

Minato reached into his memory of all their time together. He could not recall why this day in particular would be a bad one for Mitsuru. Perhaps something she had never told him, or something that happened while he was gone. Minato finished wiping his face, and his hands pressed tight against the handkerchief he still held.

“That’s fine, I’m actually not interested in all that. I just… it’s a bad day right, it’s going to be a terrible day then if you try to handle it all alone.”

“You’re not interested in your fiance candidacy?”

“No.”

“Then, we’re not together?”

“No, we can just be alone… together. In fact just consider me a distraction,” Minato had no idea if any of what he was saying made any remote sense. He could feel it though, the harshness of Mitsuru’s discerning gaze looking him over. What struck fear in the hearts of most men was somewhat pleasant to him. _MItsuru is looking at me, he thought…_ as the faint heart inside of his chest trembled. It was probably just because he had been dead for so long, that his heart was so easily flustered now, it had gotten used to not beating at all.

  
This entire situation was weird, a second chance, but Minato wanted more than anything else for it to be normal. All he desired, everything he had fought for was a return to those normal days by Mitsuru’s side that he had somehow gotten used to while fighting to save the world.

Why was he grasping a chance it at now though? Why had he come back? Minato knew that those precious days had been the sacrifice he made to protect all of his friends. Was it because he had done something heroic? Was it because he defeated the bad guy?

What prompted the return to these normal days? Minato lost in thought looked back to Mitsuru, and seeing her outlandish appearance once more was dragged back to reality. Perhaps these days were not so normal after all, he didn’t need to think about it too much.

“Well I suppose, if you don’t expect to get anything out of it. Do you have any transportation?”

Surprised by a yes, Minato smiled in relief. His smile froze though, as Mitsuru continued to ask questions. 

“Do you have plans for the evening? Are you going to pay for them, shall we split the bill or will you settle for financial compensation later?”

Minato’s smile twitched. “We could take your motorcycle, I mean… if you have one. The rest we can work out later, I’ll call your people, or you can call my people,” He didn’t have any people, unless one counted Elizabeth but that brought up questions on whether she really was a person, but Minato carried on anyway with confidence, “and I have one last request.”

“Hmm?”

“The catsuit you’re wearing...”

  
“Yes?”

Minato had tried leading her to conclude the obvious, but the obvious conclusion was Mitsuru was not going to realize how ridiculous she looked in public. Minato did not want to say so either, he could not bear to say anything that might hurt her. Really, how lame of him.

“The…” he gestured emptily in the air, “Dress code! Yes, the dress code of the establishment we’re going to would never accept such an outfit.” He was grateful really, he had spent enough time around Mitsuru to learn some of the obscure rich people laws by osmosis.

“Well I suppose, I wouldn’t want to stand out.”

Minato wanted to roll his eyes at that, but he stopped himself out of great affection for Mitsuru. Instead he brushed his hand through his hair, slicking it back again out of exasperation. “It’s fine, we’ll just hit up the mall first,” He walked ahead, pausing for a moment to give Mitsuru an opportunity to grab his arm. When she didn’t take it, he waited a moment longer, until he realized why she did not take it. Then he shuffled awkwardly, stuffing both hands into his pocket and walked ahead.

_Hey Mitsuru, do you remember when we walked side by side at Paulownia mall during Christmas time. I said I thought you were beautiful but you thought I was just joking, guess that’s what I get for being so insincere all the time. You grabbed me by the arm and just wanted to walk._

_When we were together at the end of it, you told me you were jealous when I was smiling around others girls. I didn’t understand what you were saying at all, because the only girl I remembered smiling around was you._

_Remember how quiet you were after you lost your father? You barely spoke to anybody, barely engaged, but for you that feeling lasted only a few months. I had been living my entire life like this before I met you, it was like a chronic life long apathy syndrome addiction._

_You didn’t even need to hold onto me that night, walking side by side by you was enough to make me smile._

“You’re staring at me again. Can you walk ahead of me from now on when we’re in public?” Mitsuru requested, through it was phrased more like an order.  
  
“Ah, right.” Minato said, forcing a smile this time. Muscles that had not been used in years tried to twitch awkwardly to make his face smile. He walked ahead, picking up his pace slightly. _That’s my, Mitsuru._ He thought with a soft fodness for her hardness.

With a finger pressed to her lips in thought, Mitsuru followed him. “Alright then, Mr. Nanjo I’m a bit surprised, I would hardly expect the mall to be the first place a man like yourself would think to buy clothing.”

“S-so, about that motorcycle then,” Minato hurriedly changed the subject as they arrived in front of it. He was not used to talking this much, or having to take action.

  
“Did you want to drive? Those goggles and that scarf you’re wearing, in addition to that jacket make it look like you’re already a motorcycle enthusiast.”

MInato stopped just short of Mitsuru’s motorcycle. He felt a twinge of regret for stealing so many of Nanjo’s clothes in order to disguise himself, even having zipped up his jacket around him and left his goggles dangling around his neck.

There it was, another lie he had to tell.It was always easier when others did most of the talking and he only had to respond with one or two lines. “N-no, I just wear these for show. It’s for the aesthetic you know, like wearing headphones all the time if you want to seem withdrawn. Do you think it makes me look handsome?”  
  
“No,” Mitsuru answered him harshly once more. “It hides too many of your features, you could at least take those goggles off.” She reached forward, but Minato stepped away. He had already decided not to reveal his identity when she did not recognize his face, there was no going back.  
  
“Safety first you know. I’m the heir of a major corporation, there would be a crisis if I was blinded.”  
  
Mitsuru paused, her fingers still in the air midway through her reach for him. She gave up though and moved back to the motorcycle. “I suppose you have a point, if you’re so useless on your own then there’s no problem I can drive it.” She moved over to the motorcycle, and dug into the white pocket of her coat. “Where did I put my keys again…?”

Minato instinctively reached for his neck when he asked that, the gift of Mitsuru’s that he clung to all this time. He had the keys, he could drive this motorcycle if he wanted. There was something he wanted more though, for Mitsuru to keep her promise she gave him when she handed him this key. That she would teach him how to ride this motorcycle so the two of them could ride together. "Sorry, the truth is somebody was going to teach me, but we never get to ride together."  
  
He removed his hand from his neck, not wanting to have to explain why he owned a copy of that key when she did not recognize him. Mitsuru found it eventually after turning over the pockets of her coat. “Your keys would probably be easier to find if you wore something with deeper pockets.” Minato said again looking at the catsuit.  
  
“Do you have some kind of complaint? Mitsuru asked him.  
  
Minato held his hands up. “Not really.” He was innocent. Of course looking at her in such a suit, not matter how ridiculous, was pleasant to him. She could be dressed up like a feather ranger, and she’d still be Mitsuru.

MItsuru slid easily onto the bike and then patted the seat behind her. Minato even though he had rode her bike with her before, was much more robotic in his movements, pulling himself on and wanting to avoid any contact with her leaving space in between the two of them.  
  
However when she kicked the kickstand away and started the bike, Minato found himself falling forward. Mitsuru sighed. “I suppose there’s an acceptable amount of contact required so you don’t fall off the bike.”  
  
“Yeah, I’d hate it if my head hit the ground and became jelly right now.” Minato said in a dry voice, but he did not necessarily mean it because it seemed like an escape if this situation somehow became even more awkward. _Don’t think like that, you already tried dying once, idiot._ His inner voice chided him again. He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her stomach and interlocked them. He could feel the curve of her tight waist, but he tried to pretend like he did not notice it.  
  
To distract himself while they rode together, Minato conjured in his head a battle plan. Despite being dead for all these years, he could still remember with perfect clarity all of the places he visited with her on dates. Even the ones that were not technically dates at the time because Mitsuru was engaged to another.

He had learned something from being the leader, he needed to think strategically just like Mitsuru even in situations where there were no shadows threatening them. If he brought her back to some of those places, perhaps she would remember on her own.

 _Why can’t I just tell her?_ He thought for a moment, tightening his grip around her unconsciously. He already knew why though. It was because he made the decision to die all on his own. Perhaps the reason she had forgotten him was because she truly moved on after he abandoned and hurt her.  
  
That’s why he could not further impose on her by suddenly showing up into her life unannounced again and expecting everything to return to normal. Even understanding, some small part of him wished for it, _remember me_ . _Mitsuru, Mitsuru, Mitsuru, Mitsuru._ He chanted it again and again in the back of his head like a prayer with the faintest of hopes she would call him back.

 

†

 

The moment they entered the clothing store, Minato felt another chill down his spine. He felt spotted, like he was a prey animal in the wild, and a hunter was pulling back her bow to put an arrow straight through his neck.

“So, where should we start?” MItsuru asked him, looking to him to take the lead.  
  
Minato scratched the recently shaved part at the back of his neck. “I’m not sure, really I’m used to wearing my school uniform every day.”

“Wait why. You’re not a student anymore, right?”

Technically, he wasn’t. However, he had not graduated either. Minato wondered if that made him a Neet right now. Where was he going to live from now on, the velvet room's basement? “Umm, I mean it feels like I’m wearing a uniform every day. I’m trapped by society because of my role as an heir you know…” He made up on the spot.  
  
Mitsuru looked at him incredulously for a moment and then shrugged. “You seem to be wearing that designer jacket just fine.”

Minato stretched, and looked at the back of his jacket, as well as the leather sleeves. It really was designer, but still. “Did I really pay designer brand money for a jacket this lame?” Minato said. Technically that was a lie though as he had stolen the jacket.

“I’m losing confidence in you as someone to help pick out a new outfit by the minute.” Mitsuru sharply observed as she walked behind him. Minato glanced at the men’s section for a moment, wanting a replacement for this entirely borrowed outfit he had thrown together. He shook his head, remembering he was here for Mitsuru.

When they reached the women’s clothing section, Mitsuru began to browse on her own. “How about you just give me your recommendation from what I select, and then you can pay for this when it’s all over.”  
  
“Of course, I’m a rich son of a bitch after all.” Minato muttered. _What am I even saying?_ His hands dug into the pockets of his borrowed jacket looking if he had stolen Nanjo’s wallet as well. He might as well commit to a mugging if he was already going for identity theft.  
  
“Nanjo.” Mitsuru called out to him, and Minato did not react at first. Not until she reached the second, much sharper, “Nanjo!”

“Ah, yeah.” He raised his vision, hands still caught in his pockets. Mitsuru was holding an outfit in front of him that was twice as tight as her catsuit somehow, a black dress, and then a coat that looked twice as large as her white coat. Minato wondered how many chinchillas had died to make that one coat, rather morbidly. _Oh, so dying gives you an even more morbid sense of humor, good to know._ “I think it’s umm…” _There’s really no helping you MItsuru, I’m sorry I tried my best._ _  
_ _  
_ Minato hung his head, unable to finish that sentence. Even if she wanted to walk in public wearing the most gaudy outfits in the world, Minato did not have it in him to tell the girl he loved she would look bad in any outfit. _Help me somebody, anybody, feather man rangers please…._

At that moment Minato felt it again, a sensation like a target locking onto him. He turned around to see a familiar faced girl closing in on the two of them. “Mitsuru-senpai! You finally decided to go clothes shopping at a normal store! What brought about this miracle?” Yukari Takeba, wearing an outfit that was subtle and fashionable in contrast to Mitsuru, including a long scarf around her dress shirt walked in between the two of them.  
  
With her hand on her hip, she looked back at Minato for a moment. Just like Mitsuru there was no flicker of remembrance in her eyes. Minato felt grateful for the goggles over his eyes to hide his reaction. “Oh, was it you? It’s surprising to see Mitsuru-senpai go anywhere with a man whose not walking around shirtless except for his boxing gloves and a torn hoodie.”

 _Akihiko. Why the hell are you dressing like that around her?_ Minato felt a spike of an ugly emotion in his heart, but only for a moment. Both of their senpais were such terrible dressers it was embarrassing. “It’s not like that!” Minato quickly explained himself. _I want it to be like that, but it’s not, because… well we didn’t break up it’s more like I died. Shit I can’t explain that._ “I’m a business associate of hers. I wanted to find her something more appropriate to wear for our evening together.”  
  
Mitsuru crossed her arms. “I thought this was appropriate enough.”  
  
“Mitsuru-senpai if you’re going in public you can’t wear that. It’ll give the wrong message.” Yukari whined, immediately taking Minato’s side. Minato felt glad to have another ally back, even if this one did not remember him either.  
  
“It will tell the public to stay away from me because I’m dangerous, that’s an appropriate message in my books.”  
  
“That’s totally the wrong message!”  
“That’s totally the wrong message!”  
  
Both Yukari and Minato said at the same time. Minato smirked for a moment, remembering the rhythmn of their back and forth banter from high school days easily enough. However, Yukari suddenly looked at him with a discerning eye.  
  
Minato wanted to back away from her and escape that sight, but she was already too close to him, she reached out and pulled the goggles away from his eyes. “Your outfit isn’t much better you know. To the number one, what’s that even supposed to mean? And these goggles…” SHe stopped when she saw his eyes. She stared at them moment. “Your eyes… they’re colorless, gray, how interesting.”  
  
No, that could not be. Minato knew for a fact his eyes were blue, just like his hair. Then again earlier in the mirror he had not been looking too closely. He did not have time to think about it, because suddenly Yukari clapped her hands around his face and pulled him even closer. “That’s it I’ve got it, I’ve already envisioned outfits that will match the both of you.”  
  
Before Minato could have any further say in it, he was dragged away and presented with clothes in a changing room. He unfolded the shirt in front of him, to see a stylish cut t shirt that had “MUSIC” in english emboldened on the front. “Well, this should be good. I do like music.” Minato said before shrugging off his own top and pulling it over his head.

He finished rolling up the sleeves of the suit jacket Yukari gave him, before stepping outside the booth. He looked to his right to see Mitsuru stepping out at the same time wearing a white dress shirt, with black slacks, though the sleekness of her outfit was lost in comparison to the red dazzling jacket she wore around her shoulders. “Shiny…” Minato said staring for a moment.  
  
Just when he thought they were both wearing something both sensible and stylish though, Mitsuru reached up to her collar and undid the first button, continuing to unbutton until a black sports bra was all the way exposed, stopping at the button just below it. “There, now that’s more comfortable.”  
  
_I’m never going to be able to take you in public._ Minato lamented inside of his own head, narrating to himself once more as he was used to doing. On the outside though, he was quietly watching her and chose his words carefully as usual. “Your friend really has good taste in clothing.”  
  
“Takeba, that’s her name.” Mitsuru said, gesturing over to Yukari who was eagerly awaiting both of them.  
  
“MItsuru you look so cute when you’re wearing sensible clothing.” Yukari gave what sounded like a compliment, it was by Yukari standards at least. “You’re not too bad looking either, um.. What’s your name?”  
  
Minato paused for a moment. What was his name again? “Wha- I mean Nanjo!” He bowed his head quickly, too awkwardly to greet her in a rush. “Thank you for your help. You’re Yukari Takeba right, from the featherman rangers?” That was what Elizabeth had told him at least. When he heard how much his friends scattered to the wind he did not expect to see a single one of them.  
  
“I’m in more things than just that you know, jeez! I’m an up and coming model you hear me?”  
  
“I hear you.” Once again Minato put his hands up in innocence. He looked to one of the store employees staring at him with impatience. “We should probably check out of here, with my uh.. Money.”  
  
He walked up to the counter, presenting the man with the tags for the outfits they were currently wearing. When it came time to pay up the bill, Minato looked at the long stretch of zeroes and hoped Nanjo was good for it as he handed over his card.  
  
“Sir, this card requires a code.”  
  
“Umm…” Minato looked at the number pad and typed in #0001.  
  
The machine beeped, a success. _Thanks for being such a tool, Nanjo.  
_

As they were walking out together they waved goodbye to Yukari. Minato walked ahead and looked out to the rest of Paulownia mall. He remembered clearly all the places Yukari had visited together here with him. “Do you want to hang around here for awhile?”  
  
“I’d rather not.” Mitsuru cut him off abruptly.  
  
Minato froze mid step. “There’s a good Takoyaki stand here though. Did you know, Takoyaki isn’t made of the whole octopus? You’d have to have a lot of guts to eat the whole thing in one go.”  
  
He tried to make a joke, but the sadness clouding Mitsuru’s brows worsened. Her face wrinkled and she let her hair fall to cover one of her eyes. “Of course that’s obvious. Who do you think I am, a clueless out of touch heiress? Takoyaki tastes nice but, I’m not sure I can stand to be in this mall any longer?”  
  
“Why?” Minato asked in a soft voice. Soft in the sense of being vulnerable, he was afraid of what she might say next.  
  
“It’s nothing, just too many bad memories.”  
  
_Bad memories?_ Minato did not want to press any further, or perhaps he was too afraid to. He had no idea what his existence meant right now, but it felt like he might fade away right at this moment if he did not cling to the happy memories he had shared during that one year with Mitsuru and the rest deep inside of his heart.  
  
Quietly, he began to walk forward. “That’s okay, I know somewhere else we can go.” He muttered in a low voice while not meeting her eyes. He was not someone who gave up so easily, after all he had already died and come back from the dead how much worse could one awkward evening be.

 

†

 

Minato found himself regretting making that resolve almost immediately as he sat in silence at the library. In his memories of this place, Mitsuru had brought him here to confide with him in between periods of quiet reading.  
  
Of course he was no longer Minato the underclassmen who served on the student council with her. He was Kei Nanjo to her, some guy she had just turned down a marriage arrangement from and was now spending the rest of the afternoon on a pity date.

“So, are you a college student? You look around the age,” Minato led off even though he already knew the answer. Around the time that they were first meeting in libraries like this, he started to daydream what it would be like going to college with Mitsuru on a daily basis, perhaps renting a dorm room together.  
  
“I’m not. Due to family circumstances, my life plan changed and I wasn’t allowed such a thing.” Mitsuru looked at her book. Minato leaned in hoping she would confide more in him, but she suddenly cut him off. “It’s no good to talk in the library, even if I’m no longer a student I should follow the rules.”  
  
“Do you regret not being able to go to college?” Minato asked her again, despite MItsuru pulling the book over her face.  
  
She clicked her teeth. “No. There’s no need for regrets, when the person I would have wanted to enjoy my youth with is already…” She let her words trail off, but Minato knew exactly what she meant.  
  
He felt like giving up again. He already knew what MItsuru’s current life was like, she had gone back to fighting shadows and taking care of the Kirijo corporation as it crumbled and those two things took up her entire life. Elizabeth had informed him as much. He did not want to hear her repeat it, it would only be a reminder that his sacrifice did not work.  
  
_You weren’t able to return to a normal life after all. All because of me, huh? Are you still trying to fight shadows so you can avenge me or something. Nah, I shouldn’t be so big headed._ “No wonder you’re not interested in getting married then. You must not have any time at all between fighting shadows and managing your group.”

“How did you know about that?” Mitsuru finally put her book down and looked up at him.

Minato felt it for the first time, the sharp eyed ruthless look that preceded an execution. “I wasn’t sent here to spy on you or anything. Remember, the Nanjo group and the Kirijo group collaborated for some of the early experiments. We have history with this sort of thing in the past.” Minato was lying based on information he hear overheard while untangling the conspiracy in the past. He hoped it sound convincing enough.  
  
“My work against the shadows is none of your concern.” Mitsuru’s harsh gaze lessened a bit as she  peered back into her book again.

“You don’t have to fight them all alone though,” Minato muttered.  
  
“I do, it’s something like destiny. If you speak of it so lightly then you wouldn’t understand it.”  
  
Minato’s fingers clenched on the table. Elizabeth told him he had no persona so it would not be as simple as telling MItsuru he could fight by her side again. While he was still alive though, he wanted to think as hard as he possibly could of a way to return her to her normal and every day life. “Don’t you miss, you know, doing normal things?”  
  
“Define normal things.”  
  
“Going to wild duck burger, to the library like this, loitering around the mall, eating commoner food and watching commoner movies.”  
  
“Those things lose their novelty after awhile. They’re not actually that exciting, especially if you do them alone.”  
  
Minato felt another stab of pain in his heart. “But…” His voice trailed off again, unable to speak the melancholy he felt tightening around his chest.  
  
“Nanjo. You’re trying to be kind but, don’t talk about me like you know me. Nobody does, anymore.” _Because the person who she finally opened up to died in her arms._ “Don’t talk at all in fact, you’re not allowed to talk in the library.”

 _Same old class president._ Minato could not even fault her for it. He resolved to sit in silence, until he heard a commotion at the entrance way to the library. The librarian screeched as a dog suddenly ran past her. “No dogs are allowed in the library!”  
  
Somebody else seemed to be breaking the rules. Minato’s somber expression changed though when he saw who it was, and Koromaru came bounding towards him wearing an orange hoodie. _A good boy!_ Minato said, eyes widening in pure joy as he realized the dog was running towards him because he recognized him.  
  
A moment later though, Minato realized in terrible regret that he could not greet the dog without exposing himself. He turned away as the dog ran circles around his chair, refusing to reach out to him. “Umm, whose dog is this?” He lied, pretending to be clueless. _I’m so sorry, Koromaru!_

The dog started to bark up a storm at his words. Just then his handler, a tall and thin looking teenager came and knelt down to grab him by the collar. Minato wondered for a moment if they had given Koromaru to a stranger.  
  
Behind him a familiar girl in blue hair appeared. Instead of keeping it short though, Fuuka had it tied in a braid that wrapped around one of her shoulders. “Ken, I thought I told you you had to tie Koromaru up outside.”

 _That’s Ken?_ "Somebody's been drinking their milk." Minato said, doing a double take from the body who looked like he had doubled in height in the three years since he had last saw him.  
  
Ken ignored his stunned look and looked to Fuuka instead. “Yeah, sorry. He just suddenly broke away from me and came in here. I have no idea why, usually Koromaru hates the library as much as Junpei does.”

“You should be apologizing to him, not me.”

Ken bowed his head quickly. “I’m sorry mister.”

“It’s no problem, Ken.” Minato said in a warm voice. It was nice to see the boy grown up, and Fuuka as well. She always loved books, sometimes the two of them used to read together. “What are you two and your dog doing here?”  
  
“I needed a book for school and Fuuka said she knew how to find it. I’ve got to keep my grades up you know if I’m going to stay on track and go to Gekkoukan High School when I graduate middle school.” Ken stopped for a moment looking at Minato. “Wait why did I tell you all that.”  
  
“I’m just a good listener.” MInato said quickly. It was not technically a lie.  
  
“Why was Koromaru so interested in you?”  
  
“Dogs have a sixth sense, they can tell when a man’s heart is pure. Don’t you think so, Mitsuru?” Minato employed sarcasm once more.  
  
Mitsuru only barely looked away from her book. “I only barely know you, I’m not well enough informed to make that judgement.”  
  
“Well whatever…” Ken said, before looking over to Mitsuru. “Oh hey, you’re here. I didn’t recognize you because you were dressed almost sensibly.”  
  
Fuuka gasped behind him. “Ken, don’t be so rude.”  
  
“I want you to endure her showing up on your soccer field in that outfit and then dragging you away. All of the guys teased me asking me if she was my wife for weeks."

 _Even if you’ve grown into a handsome young man, I won’t let you have her Ken._ Minato thought defensively, before realizing that he could never say that out loud. “Can I… Can I pet your dog?” He asked in a quiet voice. Ken shrugged giving him permission. Minato reached forward and scratched Koromaru’s favorite spot behind the back of his ears. He had learned it during their many walks together bonding at night.  
  
Ken watched for a moment perplexed, before Fuuka returned with the book she had been looking for. Ken stretched. “Well, might as well get it done here. Do you mind if I sit down with you and your stranger friend, Mitsuru?”  
  
“He’s not my friend, he’s barely an acquaintance, but do as you like.” Mitsuru said before returning to her book. Minato wondered for a moment if he had angered her by poking and asking questions about her personal life.

Ken sat down, Fuuka taking a seat next to him. As he started to write down on the paper he paused. “I knew this book’s kanji was going to be a pain but…”  
  
“I can help!” Minato said, suddenly standing up. It was better than sitting in silence next to Mitsuru anyway. He had helped Ken with his homework before. In fact beyond that he had spent most of his free time studying to score number one on the midterms. It was worth it for the small congratulations MItsuru gave him in private afterwards. Besides, he did not have many other hobbies at the time besides wearing headphones, listening to music and looking apathetic.  
  
He leaned over Ken’s shoulder and pointed at the kanji he was having trouble with. “This one means moon, but a few other things as well. It’s good to stop and rely on others when you get stuck with confusing kanji, try writing it down for later when you want to ask questions on it.” That’s what he always told Ken to do when he was helping him with his hoemwork.  
  
Ken looked down at his paper for a moment. “That’s what I used to do but, well my upperclassman he…” The memory looked too painful to say, so Fuuka laid her hand over his like a comforting big sister.  
  
Minato felt himself biting down on his tongue. “Well, let me at least help you as long as you’re here.”  
  
It was only another hour of him reading through the material with Ken, and gently guiding him. Before Ken’s phone went off and him and Koromaru, with Fuuka in tow were dragged off to soccer practice.

MItsuru had been watching in silence the whole time. When it was just the two of them alone again, she finally moved to put her book back on the shelf. “I think I’m done with this library,” She announced and began to walk away. She stopped to look back at him.  
  
“I-is there something you want to say?” Minato asked, suddenly feeling nervous.  
  
“Nothing Mr. Nanjo, it’s just despite your manner of dress and way of conducting yourself, you’re not as useless as I thought.”  
  
“Hey…” Minato said, letting his head fall down. He guessed that counted as a compliment. It was the best he could hope for. “I used to be better at pretending to be cool, I even genuinely had some people fooled.”  
  
“What happened then?” Mitsuru asked him as if she was genuinely curious.  
  
“I made friends.” Minato let a small smile creep on his face that he always worked so hard keeping neutral and expressionless.

“Well anyway, do you want to come with me? I’m going to end this night by going to the movies.”  
  
“I thought you didn’t want to do normal people things?” Minato questioned.  
  
Mitsuru shrugged. “Well, I just spent all of that time reading through that book, and the movie adaptation is playing in theatres now. It’s convenience, that’s all.” Mitsuru smiled brightly to herself. “Besides, I bet a rich boy like you has never been inside a movie theatre before. You can learn from my experience.”

Minato decided to play along, as the look of Mitsuru’s self satisfied expression at this moment was irresistibly cute to him.

 

†  


“A double feature really drains it out of you…” Minato commented as he stretched walking out of the theatre.  
  
Mitsuru trailed behind him, hand over her mouth as she thought quite seriously. “Those movies were they connected at all?”  
  
“Well the first one was casablanca, that’s an old western movie that they were subtitling. The second one was a horror movie based off of the book you read, you told me.”  
  
“Yeah, but it was nothing like the book.”  
  
“Well sometimes you have to make changes for the sake of an adaptation, like if it was a really long book maybe they’d split it into three parts.” Minato finished stretching and looked at the poster advertising the double feature. It read _Date Night Thriller Feature._ A romantic movie and then a horror movie huh? It wasn’t a bad idea. In fact, if he was still dating Mitsuru he would have been thrilled at the idea.  
  
Instead he stepped in front of the poster to block it from Mitsuru’s sight. “I guess it’s one of those bargain deals. You know, some people have to spend their money more efficiently.”  
  
Mitsuru touched her chin like she used to when she learned a new fact about every day life. “Oh, how clever of them. I see the practicality of offering two movies for the prince of one.”  
  
Before the two of the could finish the conversation, another pair burst out the doors. Minato saw a shirtless man, and another clinging onto him, crying his eyes out. Minato might not have recognized the other, if it weren’t for the familiar baseball cap pulled over his hair.  
  
“Man! I thought if I dragged a big tough guy like you around the movie would be less scary this time!” Junpei whined, holding onto Akihiko. “Fight all the monsters for me, Akihiko-senpai.”  
  
“You’ve faced plenty of monsters before. How are you phased by these ones? They’re just imaginary.” Akihiko said in a stern voice.  
  
“I don’t know but I need to train myself against them. Akihiko if I take my team to a movie after they win a game and I scream like a baby the whole time, they’ll lose all respect for me.”  
  
“Then you should try growing up.” Akihiko said drily. Still with a bandaged hand he reached out to pat Junpei on the back. He looked back to Mitsuru and Minato. “Oh. Mitsuru, I didn’t see you.”

Akihiko tilted his head. “Hey, whose that? Is he from the Kirijo group?”

“The Nanjo group actually.”  
  
“You two were seeing a movie together?” Akihiko tilted his head in confusion.  
  
Junpei suddenly got a wicked smile on his face.  
  
Minato realized he needed to move in an instant to protect Mitsuru. He stepped in front of her holding her arm out. “Watch it. Mitsuru was just taking personal time for herself there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, you two should probably consider it sometime too.”  
  
Akihiko’s eyes narrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”  
  
Minato pointed at both of them. “Who goes around walking shirtless in public, and you, why are you carrying a baseball bat around?”  
  
“Uhh, you know. It’s because I coach baseball.” Junpei immediately deflated. “He’s right, I don’t have much of a life outside fo that do I? It’s gotten so bad that lately on the train I fall asleep and dream about my high school days with Chidori. Oh, I’m sorry you’re just a stranger you wouldn’t know about her.”

Minato felt an immediate pang of guilt. He had left Mitsuru alone with her corporation, he was no longer there to help Ken with his studies, Yukari became a model and he wasn’t there to cheer her on, his friends had all gone in different directions without him. Even if Junpei and Akihiko sometimes felt like two of the three stooges, MInato would proudly proclaim himself the third member of the trio.  
  
Even when they were at their most ridiculous.  
  
Except, he couldn’t right now. He could not even tell Junpei he already knew about Chidori, or reach out to comfort him. He had died after all. He was as dead as CHidori as far as they understood.  
  
Another person Akihiko failed to protect, is that the reason that Akihiko was showing off so much of his muscles? Another friend from his high school days that Junpei had lost.  
  
Before he could seriously brood about it though, Akihiko had suddenly appeared in his face. “Hey man, look at what you did to Junpei. Apologize, only his friends can shit talk him like that.”  
  
“Yeah… I’m sorry.” _I guess I’m not his friend anymore._ “Can you put on a shirt though?” Thinking of his own body which after three years had become skinny to the point of being emaciated, he suddenly felt inferior in front of Akihiko.

“Make me.” Akihiko growled. Minato guessed this was something that even Mitsuru had failed to discipline Akihiko into doing.  
  
Junpei suddenly regained his spirit, jumping in between them. “That’s enough Akihiko. Let’s all three square up our honor like men.”  
  
“Yeah, there’s only one way to settle this.”  
  
“What?” Minato asked looking with a blank expression between the two of them. Before he could be answered though, they had both grabbed him by the arm, overtaken by the energy of the moment.

Minato found himself being dragged away off to whatever challenge they had waiting for him. “Hey, hey, Mitsuru! Mitsuru help!” He called out to her, but MItsuru simply watched on with cold eyes, and shrugged deciding to follow them.

†

 

“This is it a three way showdown! A battle to the death!” Junpei announced, showboating as usual. It seemed he had not gotten over that bad habit of his either. Minato looked at the cage around him. It was not symbolic for anything, he had just been dragged to the batting cages. Each of them were in an individual tall facing one another.  
  
“The rules are whoever hits the most homeruns wins their honor.” Akihiko said in a much more dignified voice.  
  
As all three of them slid coins in, Minato wondered if these two dragged random strangers into their antics all the time or he was just unlucky. Not that he minded. Some small part of him hoped they were treating him this way because perhaps, some small part of them recognized him.

Minato tightened his grip around the bat. He needed to remind these two why he was their leader after all. His eyes burned with focus and he waited for the first ball to come into view, then- **Crack!**

**Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!**

Both Junpei and Akihiko gave up halfway through to watch Minato hit every ball like a precision machine. Minato smiled in the moment. _You two might have muscles, but I’ve maxed all my stats out. This feels like a new game plus!_ He thought as his bat slammed into the next ball sending it flying far enough into the net that the net itself began to smoke slightly with the friction of the still spinning ball.

Junpei immediately came out of his cage to the side of the MItsuru who was watching on. “Whoa this guy is really cool Mitsuru, where did you find him anyway?”  
  
Mitsuru shrugged. “The company arranged the meeting for me, and he showed up so it’s more like he found me.”  
  
_Finally, somebody thinks I’m cool again. I knew I could rely on you, Junpei._ Minato thought, his heart swelling with emotion.  
  
Akihiko and Junpei both turned their eyes on him.  
  
“You’ve got to come practice with my baseball team sometime, you’d be a great example to them.”  
  
“Hey, can I ask how you work those muscles out exactly? I’ve never seen somebody who looks so thin turn out to be so strong.”  
  
“Sssh, exhibitionist.” Minato said back too quickly, and then thought about it. He could hang out with his two best friends again, but at the same time they would not know it was him who was with them. Was it really worth it, then? Minato shook his head. “Sorry I have, business things to take care of, the economy am I right?”

Junpei nodded immediately. “I completely understand dude.” He did not understand at all.  
  
Akihiko clapped his hands over his face. “I guess I’ll be stronger if I train alone anyway.”

Minato felt something tighten in his chest again. There was no reason for Akihiko to think he was alone. “You don’t have to train, you could go to college you know. I’m sure you’ll make lots of friends among the student.”  
  
“Yeah, I tried that once. It’s not really for me.” Akihiko sighed. He almost sounded bitter. It was difficult to tell though because his body made him look too much like the chiseled features of a greek marble statue and Minato was having trouble focusing when in the presence of it.

“Ah…” Minato felt awkward again. He already knew he did not belong anymore, so why linger around. He picked up the bat Junpei had lent him and offered it back. “Thanks for lending this to me, man.”  
  
Junpei shook his head. “No, you can keep it. You earned it.”  
  
“I don’t really want it.” Minato said in a flat voice. However, when Junpei made a face suddenly like a sad puppy Minato immediately took it back. “Nevermind, I’m honored to have it.”  
  
He left the two of them behind and walked out with Mitsuru. She shook her head. “I’m sorry about those two, especially Akihiko. They can be a handful, and Akihiko’s stopped listening to me entirely lately.”  
  
Now that they were alone, Minato could not resist the urge to ask. “Hey, why are you not interested in being married? Is it because that shirtless ruffian is your boyfriend?”

Mitsuru immediately gave him a look that looked like it could cut him straight in half. “Never.”  
  
Of course Minato already knew that was the answer. He had asked her that once in the past, when he started to grow feelings for Mitsuru and worried that she was much closer to her upper class man she always spent time with. He wondered why he was repeating these empty questions of the past.  
  
Suddenly, Mitsuru did speak up. “I did have a boyfriend though, once. He was a secret, until he got in the way of my engagement.”  
  
“I see.” Minato said, remarking neutrally. He knew this story already

The way Mitsuru asked him, insecurity apparent in her voice. _"Now, hypothetically, what would you think if I told you that I am interested in someone… and even though I can never be with him, I can’t stop thinking about him… Would that be wrong… hypothetically?"_

_At the time he said something selfish because he couldn’t help himself. “No, I don’t think so.”_

_Her face only seemed hurt though, even though all he wanted to reassure her. Before he could say anything else that well dressed man interrupted them. When he yelled so coldly at Mitsuru, Minato found himself standing up between the two of them on instinct alone._

_Why am I doing this, he wondered?_

_Mitsuru confided in me of all people about how important this engagement was. I shouldn’t get in the way of this. He knew it and yet he found himself standing between the two of them._

_"Well at least your father is no longer alive. I am relieved at that. I imagine you feel the same."_ _  
_ _  
__"How. How can you say that?"_

 _Minato understood perfectly the pain in Mitsuru's eyes and in her voice, because his parents had died so suddenly too and the only thing he was told was not to cause an inconvenience for others. He shut it all out and tried to remain as quiet as possible._ _  
_ _  
_ _In this moment though he stood up in front of the man to say something to him. He barely remembered what he said, now._ _  
_ _  
_ _How the hell are you? This is none of your business get lost. LIsten MItsuru, management is not child’s play, No matter how smart you are, you’re still going to need my knowledge and experience. And the Kirijo Group still needs the cooperation of my company right?”_

 _“Yes…”_ _  
_ _  
_ _“Good girl, Mitsuru. I knew you would listen to reason. Now let’s go. I’ve made reservations for us at a luxurious restaurant.”_

_“.... Very well.” She moved to leave. “I wish you hadn’t seen that, Minato. Thank you for today, and I’m sorry.”_

_MItsuru was leaving, he realized._ _  
_ _  
_ _Selfishly, again, he tried to stop her. "Mitsuru... please."_ _  
_ _  
_ _“Stop it Minato, I know how you feel… I…”_ _  
_ _  
_ _How I feel. How do I feel? Why am I acting like this? I understand MItsuru better than anyone. When you lose your parents you need to shut down and act cool so you don’t convenience others. I just need to be cool with this but…_

 _I can’t._ _  
_ _  
_ _“Let’s go Mitsuru.” The man called out again. “By the way, you! What business do you have with her? You should know your place in society. An ordinary person like you is not fit to interact with people like Mitsuru and myself.”_

_He already knew that. He was trash that was thrown away the moment his parents disappeared. It was only luck he transferred to gekkoukan to begin with. He did not hear any of the other insults that the man threw at him. He tuned them all out as he was so used to doing._

_  
_ _Suddenly though MItsuru turned around. “That’s enough!”_ _  
_ _  
_ _“Mitsuru?”_ _  
_ _  
_ _“I said that’s enough, I won’t let you insult him.”_ _  
_ _  
_ _“Why are you getting angry?”  
_

_“If you insult him you insult me!_ _  
_ _  
_ _“M-mitsuru what are you talkinga bout?”_ _  
_ _  
_ _“How dare you say he knows his place. How can you even compare to him? He lives life on his own terms… and he taught me not to be afraid of the future. I want to be with him… now… and forever…”_ _  
_ _  
_ _“YOu want to be with him?? Now and forever? What are you talking about, I am your fiance! I suggest you retract that statement, MItsuru… I will only forgive you if you apologize this isntant. THink of the future of your company.”_ _  
_ _  
_ _“I won’t apologize! I want to be with him. You don’t care about who I am or how I feel. The kirijo group can stand on its own. We don’t need any help from a person like you. From today, you and I are strangers. ANd if you try to do anything alicious I will use the power of the Group to destroy you. Get out of here you snob, I don’t ever want to see your face again.”_

 _The man ran away crying for his grandfather._ _  
_ _  
_ _Minato had watched the whole time, unable to move from the shock. She wanted him? Somebody wanted him? If he did not realize his feelings before, he did in that moment. He loved Mitsuru. He wanted her, and she wanted him in return._ _  
_ _  
_ _Nobody had ever wanted somebody like him. The only reason he lived his life by his own rules is because nobody interacted with him up until this point. Yet, MItsuru looked at that emptiness of his and saw something in it._ _  
_ _  
_ _Her face turned red in the cutest way when she finally looked back at him. “Umm…I-I..”_

_That’s right back then you ran away._

“What happened to him?” Minato said. He stopped staring back into the past and faced Mitsuru head on.  
  
She gave a smile then, that looked a little troubled, and a bit sad, yet Minato could feel an incredibly strength behind it, something his own empty self lacked. “He’s gone now.”

“Ah, I’m sorry about that.”  
  
“There’s no helping it. I learned that the hard way. Thank you…”

 _It can be helped._ He thought. _Mitsuru._ “If the person you thought you lost… your friends and acquaintances… What if they returned to you? A dying young man? A gourmet king? A rival athlete? An unusual monk? A businessman? A transfer student? A girl at the shrine?  A team Manager? A boy at photography club? A friend you only chatted with online. A treasurer? An old couple? A harsh disciplinary committee member? A classmate with woman troubles. A bunch of strange people like that suddenly came back in your life? How would you feel?”  
  
“My, my. Those are some odd examples. It’d be frightening.” Her hair fell over one of her eyes once more.

“Frightening?”

“I’d worry that they just might disappear again.”  
  
“I see…” Minato turned around putting the bat over his shoulder. It seemed like this time it was his turn to run away. It was tempting, more than Mitsuru could ever know to simply throw his arms around her and explain everything, that he was back, that he wanted to be by her side forever.  
  
Not all people can stay together forever though, death comes for us all. Memento Mori. The lesson he had learned from Ryoji as a part of his long journey. Even if he was somehow magically alive, things had already changed without him and they could not go back no matter how much he desired it.  
  
If he returned he would only hurt Mitsuru. He would hurt her more than he had by dying on her. His heart claimed responsibility for it all, the broken future, her one woman war against the shadows, it was because he could not keep his end of the promise that they would seize their future together and live by their own terms.

“I’ll tell the Nanjo corporation you dumped me, and to cancel the marriage negotiations. Hey, Mitsuru. That boyfriend of yours, you should just forget about him though. He’s not nearly as cool as you think he is.”  
  
Minato wanted to leave it at that. It was like the black and white western movie he had just seen, not all couples could end up together no matter how much they loved each other, sometimes you needed to say goodbye in a cool way.

_We’ll always have big wing burger? Nah, that’s just lame._

†

Minato pulled out his phone and began talking to Elizabeth over it. “So I really can’t summon a persona now, huh?”

  
“The power of the wildcard passed onto Aigis, and a new wildcard appeared named Yu Narukami.”  
  
“You think if I asked nicely that Aigis would give it back.”  
  
“No, I don’t think so.” Elizabeth said. “I’m sorry, Minato.” At least she was polite about it. “If you’re feeling useless at the moment I can comfort you. It won’t change the reality, but it might provide you some solace.”

She was being polite in her own little Elizabeth way.  
  
“That’s fine. If I’m useless I guess I should just make myself useful. Maybe I can get a job somewhere…Hey does the velvet room have a basement and a PS2?”

 “I know of a great place you can go! There’s a new store that opened in the mall called Junes. It’s jingle goes, Everyday’s great at your Junes!”  
  
“Yeah, so?”  
  
“Well if you go there, then your day is going to be great. Oh, it’s night right now so it might not work but it’s worth a shot.”  
  
Minato tried to smile at her usual overly literal personality. At least Elizabeth remembered him. For a moment he was tempted to ask if he could just disappear together with her. The two of them did not belong in this world anymore anyway, either of them. He decided against it though.  
  
Even if he couldn’t be with her, he wanted to keep on loving Mitsuru. _Not cool at all. Totally lame right?_

“I’ll check it out. Let’s see if their jingle is as much of a fraud as Mr. Tanaka’s.” He made the walk to Junes, keeping Elizabeth on the line. Even if she did most of the talking, her voice was a comfort to hear in the face of the otherwise empty feeling in his heart. It echoed around inside of him.  
  
“Hey, Elizabeth what do you mean I can’t use a persona? Like I won’t even be able to summon one anymore?”  
  
“Due to the way you were brought back, it would be ill advised.”  
  
“What do you mean?”

He was standing in the middle of the electronics section now, and noticed his reflection in a row of TVs that had been shut off. He leaned in and checked his reflection. Noticing his hair had become a mess, he started to style it back into shape. Considering it was this late and the store was empty, he was pretty sure this was breaking and entering, but due to the laziness of an employee no alarm went off when he walked through the door.  
  
“I don’t know if your body can handle it.”  
  
“My body?”  
  
“Well, here’s the thing it’s not your original body. If you were to dig it up, it would probably still be in the grave you were buried in. I already tried everything I could think of to bring you back to your original body, but reviving the dead is impossible even for people like us.”  
  
“People like you?”  
  
“People who live in the Velvet room.”  
  
“Should have known you weren’t going to be specific.” Minato blew at one of the blue locks that fell in front of his face.  
  
“When I saw somebody who had gained intelligence even though he was made of shadow, I thought of something finally to bring an end to my long journey. What if I just made you a new body. A perfect reflection of your original self.”

“A shadow self?”

“I just put your memories in it, but I left your original body to become the door. It’s like that human movie, terrifying tuesday. Pretty cool right?”  
  
Minato felt like he should be more terrified than this, but he found himself staring at the mirror. The moment he acknowledged it, his eyes turned a bright yellow. “So I’m just Minato’s shadow, huh? Alight, cool. I just realized, grey eyes, short slicked back hair, I look so much like Ryoji.”  
  
As usual he chose not to react. Just then though, he flet something tighten around and burn his neck. _What is this feeling? Death?_ He pulled at the ghost around his neck, trying to make it loosen, to slacken.  
  
Before he could though he realized the source of the feeling. Mitsuru Kirijo stood behind him. She was holding a fencing saber right at the back of his neck. Minato stopped struggling and looked at her.

“Kei Nanjo just called me and told me he was knocked unconscious and had all of his things stolen.  
  
“...”  
  
“I thought I saw your eyes turn yellow when you used all that strength in the batting cages, but I didn’t want to think about it too much. I was foolish. You’re one of them.”  
  
“Mitsuru, don’t…”  
  
“Don’t call me by that name using his voice!”

Minato’s eyes widened. “You recognize me?”  
  
“I won’t forgive you for making a mockery of his appearance.”  
  
“Mitsuru.”  
  
“For trampling on all of our precious memories together.”  
  
“Mitsuru!” Minato called out. He had his back pressed against the TV now with Mitsuru inches away from him, holding the edge of her sword at his neck. She pulled the edge slightly over his skin, causing black shadows to leak out where she cut him, confirming he was not human. “Mitsuru, you put on a strong face all day, but at night when you’re alone you fall asleep crying and calling out his name.”  
  
“How do you know that?”  
  
“It’s because I heard you! Even on the other side, even when I was dead, even when I didn’t have a body or ears, I heard you!” Minato cried out. He had given up all pretenses of being cool by this point.  
  
Mitsuru looked at him with cold eyes. “Die.” It was too late he was going to be executed. He touched a hand to the TV screen unconsciously. Just then he felt the sensation of himself sinking. Not only that, but Mitsuru who was wrapped around him to restrain him began to fall too.  
  
Minato fell backwards and landed on a pad, covered in what looked to be the silhouettes of bodies. As his body was not even real, it did not hurt too much. He looked over quickly to confirm that MItsuru was okay.  
  
Minato kicked her sword away and then looked to the side. There was a great black puddle which birthed all kinds of strange, masked creatures, all of them looking hollow.  
  
“Shadows…” Minato commented.  
  
Mitsuru looked up, fire still in her eyes. “You’re the one who lured them here, you shadow. What, you can’t finish me off on your own?”

“Mitsuru…” Minato said softly one last time as he picked up the bat Junpei had given him and put it over his shoulder preparing to swing. He walked forward, ignoring everything Elizabeth had just told him.  
  
He strode forward with confidence.  
  
“There’s so much I want to apologize for, but it looks like I won’t get the chance. Too bad.” He raised a finger to the side of his head. _My body can’t handle it if I summon a persona right? Well she never said I couldn’t then, just that it was too risky._

_If I do this, I’ll die or disappear._

“Thank you for telling me you wanted to be with me that time. It made me really happy, nobody had ever said they wanted me before.”

  
He raised a single finger to his head, cokcing his thumb up so it took the shape of a gun. He pulled the imaginary trigger without hesitation.  
  
_"Minato, please..."_  
  
“Bang.” 

_It’s okay if I disappear, so please one more time…_ _  
__Let me feel their strength._  
  
Whether it was due to him, or the shadows attacking him Minato did not know, but suddenly his entire vision went pitch back. 


	3. Mitsuru

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the story!

_ Hmmmm, what is this?  _ _   
_ _ A moment ago something important happened. _

_ A moment ago something resonated through my entire being.  _ _   
_ _ I felt something stronger than I had ever felt before… _ _   
_ _ It was even worse than dying, far worse. _ _   
_ _ Now where am I? _ _   
  
_

His vision, his sensation, pitch black. In his brief window of life he had forgotten what being dead was like, the formless existence he endured as the sacrifice to hold back Nyx. Something that was neither shadow, nor self, but existed exactly at the boundary line in between.    
  
Right between.   
Right on the line.   
Until it blurred.   
Everything blurring, blurring, no boundaries and no form, no restrictions but without those I… I...I...me…myself...I… those all of those things disappear. 

_ No, don’t forget like last time. _ _   
_ _ Think about something besides yourself.  _ _   
_ _ Who? _ _   
_ _ Who exists besides me?  _ _   
_ _ It’s so lonely here is there anyone else in the whole world besides me? _ _   
_ _ There was! _ _   
_ _ There was somebody who wanted to see me again. _ _   
_ _ They missed me terribly.  _ _   
_ _ I remember their name. _ _   
_ _ I tried to call out their name. _ _   
_ _ Mitsuru!  _ _   
_ _ That name, it’s been important to me for a long time. _ _   
_ _ Mitsuru, Mitsuru, MItsuru.  _ _   
_ _ When did it start? I need to focus as much as possible, everything I know about her, every moment together, everything she is… she is everything.  _ _   
_ _ When I first met you I thought I had everything figured out. The me who existed until that point in time was shallow. My only goal until then was to live a life completely unrelated. When my parents died, I was passed between several relatives who had no interest in caring for me on a permanent basis, and made me notice every second staying at their household was a burden on them. Eventually a teacher took pity on me and took me in, but in that household we almost never spoke to one another. They worked late and left money on the counter for my food needs. The only time I ever asked for something was when I wanted a music player and a pair of headphones, as the noise of other people on the train bothered me.  _ _   
_ _ I am nothing but trouble for others, and the reverse was true as well they are nothing but trouble for me. The ideal way to live was completely by yourself, by your own set of values, and your own set of rules without depending on anybody else.   _

_ I thought nothing of all about being transferred to Gekkoukan high. Living in a dorm would be easier, because it meant I was at least not obligated to interact with any of the adults around me. I could also brush off interactions with people my own age the same way I always had in the past, at least I was not obligated to show them respect like I was my old teacher and relatives. The entire train ride there I enjoyed myself listening to music, thinking I could sink away from this world entirely and disappear.  _ _   
_ _ “Apathy Syndrome” they called it, the affliction of this part of the city. People went mad at the emptiness inside of them and shut down entirely. Perhaps everybody around me thought I had it, but really I just kept my emotions to myself. _ _   
_ _ When I saw coffins in the street I suspected they might have been right about me, not because I was seeing something that did not fit in with what should have been reality, but because such an image barely bothered me.  _ _   
_ _ There was someone who spoke and looked like death itself hanging in the lobby, a creepy child one would find in any horror movie, but his voice was somehow comfortable to be around like a conversation with an old friend not that I would have experience with that at the time, and I was easily lulled into signing a contract that I had no idea what it meant.  _ _   
_ _ Soon, it escalated to the point where I pushed a gun to the temple of my forehead, yet, I remained calm at all of this. Why? Because I was a natural born leader? Because I was meant for this all along? Because I secretly craved a life of adventure? Because I had a dark personality? _ _   
_ _ No, I think I just was the same as always. I did not want to engage in this life, I wanted to be untouched by it. To do that I had to conquer it completely, I could not show fear, I could not show weakness, I simply needed to do what was asked of me at this new dorm.  _ _   
_ _ Perhaps it was too much asking the new guy to become the leader, but arguing against it would mean showing my weakness.  _ _   
_ _ It was easier to just accept everything about this world and let it pass me by. My life hunting shadows was just another extension of my school life, I needed to live unrelated, go through my day untouched, and not betray a single thing about myself. _ _   
_ _ A mask. _ _   
_ _ I was wearing a mask. _ _   
_ _ A perfect mask of calmness.  _ _   
_ _ No man is an island, but me.  _ _   
_ _ Or perhaps something more like water, rushing through, able to take any form it wanted peaceful one moment, seizing up with great strength the next.  _ _   
_ _ Well if I was water I was definitely a puddle.  _ _   
_ _ There was nothing under the surface.  _ _   
_ _ I only engaged others in a shallow manner. _ _   
_ _ As long as I stayed like that everything was fine. _ _   
_ _ It was because Junpei wanted for more that he suffered and screwed up so much. _ _   
_ _ Adulation, pride, respect, all of those things he desired he would only be left wanting.  _ _   
_ _ He should have just learned to go without. _ _   
_ _ He feels inferior me because I seem to accomplish this all without struggle, and he’s right I don’t struggle.  _

_ To be relied upon without relying on others. To be trusted without trusting others. To have others open up to you without opening up to them. That is the most ideal existence.  _ _   
_ _ People fight because they have different needs, different expectations, they want different things from each other. If I can read them and respond to their needs effectively simply by switching the mask then there will be no fighting. _ _   
_ _ Nobody can reach me.  _ _   
_ _ I am the only one who is above it all, who is untouchable. _ _   
_ _ Or so I thought.  _ _   
_ _ Then I met her.  _ _   
_ _ Kirijo Mitsuru, guiding post of this team, student council president, model student. _ _   
_ _ She achieved all of that effortlessly, all on her own.  _ _   
_ _ From the moment I saw her, I knew she was exactly like me.  _ _   
_ _ She too, was untouchable, relying entirely on herself.  _ _   
_ _ If my personality was detached from everything though, she genuinely was above everything and everyone. _ _   
_ _ She was not just able to live without relying on them, she was better than them. _ _   
_ _ She was better than me, or so I thought.  _ _   
_ _ For some reason this felt like an affront to my existence. _ _   
_ _ Junpei and Yukari both relied on me.  _ _   
_ _ It was natural I supposed, to look up to your Senpai but I did not want to acknowledge the difference between us.  _ _   
_ _ Mitsuru was always polite and formal in front of us, and commanding and composed at the same time. _ _   
_ _ She was the strength we needed in the situation, but she knew when it was time to be soft as well.  _ _   
_ _ She was reading the situation and composing herself accordingly, she had every single reaction filed away to call up at a moment’s notice. _ _   
_ _ She probably had been dealing with people’s expectations from a young age, being an heiress and all. _

_ She needed to maintain a persona for her family, for her school, for her friends, and for hunting shadows with SEES and all of those masks needed to not conflict with one another.  _ _   
_ _ Even if she came from a good family and I was an orphan, even if she had been fighting with SEES a lot longer than I had, even if she was in student council and I was a laid back student only in the Kendo club because somebody else pushed me to join, I did not want to lose to her.  _ _   
_ _ The moment I was invited to the student council, it was like I spotted my first opening, that was when the competition begun.  _ _   
_ _ I studied harder than I ever had before in my life. _ _   
_ _ I thought if I scored first place in the exams, continued investigating Tartarus, helped out with student council and Kendo club at the same time I would prove something. _ _   
_ _ I would prove that I could do it too, live above everything in the same way that you did.  _ _   
_ _ You weren’t doing it better than me. _ _   
_ _ You weren’t stronger than me. _ _   
_ _ You wouldn’t become somebody I could rely on.  _ _   
_ _ For the longest time, the passion which drove me to suddenly study, to participate more, to work harder than I ever had shifting between masks went entirely unnoticed by you. _ _   
_ _ It was a one sided rivalry, but that was how I wanted it to be.  _ _   
_ _ Nobody needed to see my efforts only the results they produced.  _ _   
_ _ When I scored at the top of my year for the first time and you praised me I felt… _ _   
_ _ Disappointed.  _ _   
_ _ This is not how I wanted to feel. _ _   
_ _ I expected… _ _   
_ _ You to need me? _ _   
_ _ To rely on me more? _ _   
_ _ Oh, no that was all stupid.  _ _   
_ _ I just wanted you to notice me.  _ _   
_ _ A small amount of praise was not enough.  _ _   
_ _ Everything I had fought so hard on my own for was undone in that moment, because I realized that I needed you.  _ _   
_ _ The person who was alike, composed, who put on masks to suit others and seem perfect and untroubled just like me.  _ _   
_ _ I needed you to see how we were the same.  _ _   
_ _ I wanted you to sympathize with me.  _

_ To really believe that I lived for myself, by my own rules, so that I could believe it too.  _ _   
_ _ These one sided feelings were not a rivalry. _ _   
_ _ They were love. _ _   
_ _ He wanted to reach her level to be equal with her, but he hadn’t. _ _   
_ _ The only thing he had gotten for his troubles was a pat on the head. _ _   
_ _ For the first time in all of his putting on masks and avoiding others, he felt alone.  _ _   
_ _ However the image of Mitsuru he carried in his mind shattered one day, the same day that the purpose of SEES shattered and Ikutsuki’s depection was revealed.  _ _   
_ _ You weren’t better than others, you weren’t composed, you weren’t looking away from me on purpose.  _ _   
_ _ You were just some girl, crying and holding onto her father.  _ _   
_ _ I wanted to be needed by you, how selfish.  _ _   
_ _ You needed so much more than I ever did.  _ _   
_ _ You didn’t want to be above others, you wanted to understand and be with them too, but you couldn’t, because of the life you had been born into, the responsibilities forced on you. _ _   
_ _ Watching quietly as we spent time together, I came to understand all of this. _ _   
_ _ Even if I never told you, I wanted to understand you more than anybody else did.  _ _   
_ _ I didn’t want to be needed by you anymore.  _ _   
_ _ I just wanted to help you. _ _   
_ _ I thought maybe all of that effort I put into reaching your level… _ _   
_ _ I thought maybe one day we would be equals.  _ _   
_ _ Oh, but then I died. _ _   
_ _ Story over I guess.  _ _   
_ _ Then, what am I doing here?  _ _   
_ _ I pulled the trigger once more and then… _ _   
_ _ Oh, I remember.  _ _   
_ _ Nothing around me, no visible light, only darkness… that’s the nature of a shadow. _ _   
_ _ I remember what Elizabeth told me. _ _   
_ _ That’s what I am now. _

 

†

 

Minato opened his eyes. Remembering, that he was himself, that he had form, he could finally see again. All around him was a colorless void, black from the absence of any light at all.  
  
Yet, he could still see.    
  
In front of him he saw a familiar face. A meta face, with two large holes for eyes, disjointed at a jagged sawtoothed jaw, a head like a bird’s and a curved neck, he wore formal clothing like some type of military uniform but most prominent of all were the chains, chains that linked to several coffins he was forced to carry on his back.    
  
Thanatos.    
  
The persona that first appeared to him on the roof that day. The form took when Ryoji wanted to become a monster that Minato could kill and grant peace to his final days.   
  
The persona loomed over him, and Minato looked into those hollow eyes and could somehow tell he was being stared back at. Then, its hanging jaw began to move as if puppeteered by an invisible hand.    
  
“I am you. I am the true self.”   
  
“You’re the true me?”   
  
“I am death.”

He remembered what Elizabeth told him vaguely over the phone. That it was impossible to revive the dead, that his body was still buried in his grave, that his soul still remained tethered to that door.   
  
Then what was he? What remained of the existence known as Arisato Minato if he had no body and no soul. Lingering attachment was all that he was, a wish that he could see his friends one more time. However, he remembered in an instant that is reappearance had only caused Mitsuru. The face of hurt and suspicion she had made when he claimed to be Minato. Those feelings pierced through his far worse than any injury he had ever sustained hunting shadows.    
  
“Then what am I?”

The lonely boy who made friends for the first time in his life, who finally felt connected, only to have those friends be the very reason he had to be alone again. The world was full of such stories like that, he was not special, nor was he an exception. All one could do was accept that there would be loss in life.  
  
Memento Mori.    
Remember death.   
Remember that you will die.    
  
Those were the words he had accepted a long time ago. Yet, he had still tried something as foolish as coming back to life. Even if he was roped into it by Elizabeth’s meddling, there must have been some part of him that desired it.    


_ I get it.  _

“You’re a sweet dream. The dream of the boy behind the door.”   
  
“I get it, if he wakes up and cries then I’ll be gone.” 

_ It was a mistake to desire anything in the first place.  _

_ I should have accepted it.  _

_ I should have accepted my death.  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ I never should have listened to Mitsuru’s last words. We’ll have to build our love from scratch again. Come what may, we’ll be together. It’s those words that gave me this mistaken hope.  _

 

†

 

  
Arisato Minato’s form tore itself in two in an instant, the human body evaporating like black smoke the moment it was torn in half. From it, emerged a being that Mitsuru recognized, the persona known as Thanatos, the dangerous and berserk one Minato always avoided using.   
  
It was named after the greek god that personified death, and twin brother of the god who personified sleep. She saw the persona raise it’s arm and cry out, as if it were calling to something. Answering it’s call, several coffins fell from the sky chained together, he grabbed the chain with his extended hand and threw the coffins down into the mob of shadows below.    
  
Violently, he bashed the coffins against the shadows as if he were wielding some kind of elaborate mace. The shadows splashed like water, their forms indefinite and they adpated too well to the violent onslaught.    
  
Thanatos changed up his tactics throwing the coffins into the air and lettting them land hovering behind his back. He reached into his chest and brought out a sword almost as large as he was.   
  
When a shadowy hand grew from the mass and came at him, he attacked first with instinct unhinging his jaw and biting straight into it. He ripped off pieces of what looked to be flesh, and caused blak ink to spray from the wound like blood. In the next moment he drew his sword and slashed forward cleaving the mass of shadows clear in two.  
  
Just like a hydra though, the two masss merely split up, growing far more masks than they had before. They bubbled to the surface, like the shadow itself was boiling with something, some emotion.   
  
MItsuru wondered what even drew such a powerful mass of shadows here. She had been to the world of the TV realm before, and even saw strange things, but it was not merely her presence that attracted this much in droves. 

Then she realized, she was most likely incidental to this. Shadows only reflected the emotions of humans, the kind that were repressed in a Jungian sense, rage, hatred, feral instincts like that most did not want to acknowledge.   
  
The entire day, that person with her had been following her around putting on a mask and pretending as if all was normal. While at the same time he remembered everything, and knew that things would never be normal, that they were irreparably broken. The emotions he held back then must have been deep and formless as the darkest trench in the ocean.   
  
Mitsuru realized this, as hard as he studied she had always been the brains between the two of them. The person in front of her even after going to such extremes to protect her, going all out in every sense of the word.    
  
He was just fighting himself. The reason no matter how much Thanatos thrashed about he could not get rid of the mass of shadows, masks, limbs, hands reaching out for him was because those were his own emotions threatening to consume him. 

He went so far in putting on a mask that he had even surrendered away his human form. That person, that idiot right in front of her that was… that was definitely.    
  
“Minato!” She cried out loud enough to even pierce straight through the heart of the rampaging monster in front of her. She did not have an evoker, but that did not matter at the moment. After all, those kids from Inaba had been able to summon just fine without evokers.    
  
All she really needed was the threat of death to push her to her absolute limit. What was it that made personas evolve, that called out their true strength? She had once heard it was postulated that witnessing tragedy brought it out in the children they had collected. It was true that only after watching her father die did her persona awaken to its strongest form, but to her that was not the trigger.    
  
All that was needed was one’s resolve. If she really was meant to be an iron woman, than she could show a fraction of that, instead of simply watching the fight like a helpless maiden. She picked up her saber, and pushed it to her throat, hard enough that the pointed end started to draw blood.    
  
“Come to me, Artemisia!” 

She did not even wait for the persona to summon, she rushed forward with her own sword towards her target. Her fencing skills had not left her one bit as she easily dodged out of the way of one of the coffins swinging about wildly behind thanatos and then struck forward with her saber. At the same moment Artemisia appeared, following her strike’s shadow and adding a strike of her own.    
  
The place she aimed was not the mass of shadows, but rather Thanatos himself. The persona turned its head around like a doll, realizing that it had been stabbed from behind in two locations. From where it had been stabbed, cracks began to appear in his body. In his shadowy body, those were cracks of pure light traveling all throughout his form. 

  
“Surrender that body of yours and give him back to me! Give me back my Minato!” She cried out, but at this point it sounded more like an order. 

 

†

 

_ “Give me back my Minato!” _

Minato’s eyes opened again and he saw himself sitting on a velvet couch. This was not the velvet room however, rather it was the place he said goodbye to Ryoji at just before making the choice he did to die. 

He looked to the couch hoping to see his old friend, but there was nobody sitting in the adjacent couch. Minato’s shoulders sank in disappointment. He supposed it was still possible to be disappointed like this even after death. 

  
He fell over and laid his head down on the couch. However, his face did not come into contact with the velvet cushioning, but rather with a lap. He quickly looked up, but only saw his own face looking down at him.    
  
Eyes yellow, hair falling to cover his own eye, entire form with muted covers as if he were covered in shadow. This was his shadow self, and his true self. A hand reached out and brushed its way through his long and messy hair, before lingering on his cheek. He felt cold to be around, cold just like a corpse. He did not want to be touched by such a hand but… this was the only person left to comfort him. 

  
“My Minato, huh? Those rich girls shouldn’t assume everything belongs to them. Somebody else should teach Mitsuru manners now that I can’t anymore.” 

“...”

“Hey, is that why I look so much like Ryoji right now? Because I’m just a temporary dream of the Minato who exists behind the great seal?”

“...Ryoji was given a body because of us, because of the time he spent within us. Now, that we have spent so much time within Nyx, holding her back, we were able to make a body like his.”   
  
“Wait. Then.”   
  
“This body you have right now, it was borrowed from Ryoji. Whatever bodies, form, souls are made of, yours and his are composed of the same material.”

“Did he…?”   
  
“Who knows. Perhaps it was just the meddling of that girl Elizabeth, but I think Ryoji would have wished it.”   
  
“If… If I have a body then I could go back right? It doesn’t just have to be a day, it can be a little longer. One more day maybe, or two.”   
  
“You realize what you are right? As long as you exist in the great seal you’ll just be a dream. You won’t ever be a human being ever again. You’ll live like Ryoji again, a fragile existence, knowing that one day it must end. You won’t be able to accept that if you desire for more.”

“I… what’s wrong with dreaming about happy things?” Genuine emotion creeped into his voice. “Maybe it’s uncool, maybe I’ll look desperate but… I…”  He sat up once more to look the shadow version of himself in the eyes. Perhaps those eyes were hollow, but so were the eyes he looked at the world with until meeting those people. “I have friends who liked the uncool me! I know, that I won’t be able to accept myself. I never have been! But those people around me will still accept me even if I can’t accept myself.” 

“Ah…” The shadow tilted his head. It must have been lonely, Minato realized that. All of this time he pushed it away, his emotions, his needs, his wants, he pushed them away and tried to let it all slide off of himself. The reason that these shadows appeared, that they clung to you, it must be because they were incredibly lonely having to deal with those negative emotions on their own. “If that’s your answer then, I’ll accept it as well.”

The room faded away before his eyes. No longer did it look like dissolved shadows, the room faded like twilight, it broke apart into pure, twinkling light. He had only one last regretful thought as he looked at it. 

_ Ryoji. _ _   
_ _ If it’s possible, I want to see you one last time.  _ _   
_ _ I want to thank you.  _ _   
_ _ Now I’m the one living in your shadow.  _ _   
_ _   
_ †

 

The shadow cracked apart, and from within, naked spilled out Minato Arisato once more. Mitsuru moved on instinct to catch him without thinking about anything else. Her persona grew out of her and danced around her protectively for a moment, but the mass of shadows as well began to dissolve into small bubbles of light.

  
MItsuru found it was oddly beautiful. Odd, because she had never once found anything associated with shadows to be beautiful. She looked down and saw the Minato in front of her. The hair that he had carefully slicked back became undone, and fell messily over his face obscuring one eye.

  
She reached forward to brush it out of his face, her nails gently skimming across his cheek. She remembered doing this when they were together. His one eyed glare frustrated her sometimes. He was the kind of person who only looked with two eyes when he was serious about things.    
  
She wanted to reflect back in both of his eyes, be at the center of them. Mitsuru supposed that even she could enertain girlish thoughts about monopolizing his attention.    
  
His eyes were dull at first, simply staring upwards like he still thought he was dreaming. Eventually, they focused, rolling around in their sockets for a moment, before both of them centered on her. 

“Did I save you?”   
  
Was the first thing he asked.   
  
“No, I’m the one who saved you.”   
  
“I should have expected that, more or less.” 

Her eyes shook, with years of held back emotion as she stared down at him. The face of her beloved, almost exactly as she remembered, but aged a bit as if he was catching up for lost time. Even now, holding him precariously in her arms was not enough. She wanted to be closer, she wanted to be so close they could never be separated again.   
  
The moment she saw him turn his back to her, and risk himself she knew it was Minato. Nobody would act that stupidly impulsively yet cool and calm at the same time for one, and no man she had ever met in her life had shown her such a strong back before. She would recognize it in an instant.    


However, she too had dreamed of seeing a scene like this too many times to believe it could be real. “Minato… are you really Minato? Are you my Minato?”   
  
“I’m always yours. Even if I were to die and be reincarnated again, I will always belong to you.”   
  
Saying something so smooth without a moment of hesitation, even when he had made such a mess of himself. Only Minato was capable of that. She smiled at him, a smile so peaceful he felt his soul saved by it right at that moment. Then, the next moment her saber suddenly pointed at his throat again.   
  
“I’m going to punish you!”   
“Huh?”   
“I’m going to give you the death sentence for dying on me!”  
  
“That seems a little bit counter productive.” Minato said, his voice layered again in the usual sarcasm. “I must be an idiot for thinking you might change on me. Mitsuru is ruthless as usual.” 

The saber dropped away, and her hands reached for his face once more. Minato expected something violent, but instead, her bare hands touched him softly, embracing his face. “D-do you really think I’m like that?”  
  
“N-no way. Nobody who knows the real you could actually think you’re ruthless.”   


“Well you can think I’m a little ruthless. What will I do if I can't intimidate others?” She spoke like an indecisive girl for a moemnt, wavering back and forth. Then, her face came closer to his gently she pushed her forehead against his, and he saw with discerning eyes she was taking in every last detail fo his face from up close. “You on the other hand have changed quite a lot. You’ve somehow gotten even more handsome.”  
  
“Oh…”   
  
Minato noticed right then that their positions had shifted, and Mitsuru crawled on top of him. That is to say she crawled on top of his self that was naked like he had been born again anew.    
  
He had been going three years without his beloved’s touch after all, he could only hold himself back for so long. This was going to be one of those straw that breaks the camel’s back scenarios if he was not careful.  
  
“Umm… Mitsuru, we probably shouldn’t do something like this in the… wherever this is. That’d be as dangerous as doing it in Tartarus.”   
  
“Doing what?”   
  
“You know what.”   
  
“Please, having such dirty thoughts in your head. I see you’ve gotten wild in this time and need to be disciplined.”   
  
“You’re making it worse!”   
  
“There’s no way we can entertain such thoughts before marriage.”   
  
“We’ve done it before, you know.”   
  
She paused for a moment, before drawing back. Her hand covered her face, and she posed elegantly, even in this strange situation. Minato knew that pose was just to cover her blushing face so she could maintain her act. “Well, that was before we were officially engaged. Now we need to have a proper relationship now that everything is formalized.”

“........Married?” Minato had thought he was never going to see her again a moment ago.    
  
“You came to me as a fiance candidate didn’t you?”   
  
Minato nodded along eagerly. “I did, I did.” 

  
“Then, let’s get married. Everything that is yours will now become mine.”   
  
“I have an old mp3 player in my pocket, and my motorcycle keys.”  
  
“Wow, that’s the best offer I’ve heard so far.” She smiled at him, playing along with his usual games of sarcasm and wit. At night when the two of them were alone in the dormitory, sneaking into each other’s rooms, they had long and winding conversations just like this. Both of them exposing their true, terrible selves to each other.    
  
“Then, I’ll accept. I wanted to be the one to ask her but… you just deciding everything on your own is much more like you.” He reached forward and took her hand. For some reason that touch was far more intimate than what he had implied they might do a moment ago. “I just want to support you. I want to always be by your side, come what may. Because I love you.”   
  
At that moment, Mitsuru’s expression froze at first, and then slowly boiled over with a bright red. He saw several different reactions channel through her face, before finally she simply quietly nudged him again and leaned against him.    
  
“Hmm, why are you getting so shy if we’re engaged?”   
  
“That’s the first time you said it back… you know. The first time you said those three words.”   
  
“Ah, I really am the worst.”   
  
He let her lean against him for awhile. However, with no barrier between them he could not last that way forever. When he stood up, he remembered that his body was just made of shadows after all and the same way he summoned an evoker when he needed one the most, he concentrated hard until a set of clothes came from the shadows, made of them as well.   
  
He pulled them on once more, and dug into his pocket to find his mp3 player and Mitsuru’s motorcycle key still in place. Those objects were like a permanent part of his being, there was no way he could let go of them so easily.

  
Then, together, hand in hand the two of them left the shadow world together. 

_   
_ †

 

It was a busy day for him.    
The rest had yet to know he had come back alive, and Minato did not know how to tell them yet.    
He was a shadow now after all, so a few times he shadowed them in their daily lives.  
  
Today, Junpei’s baseball team lost and he tried to give a rousing speech to cheer them all up. They only laughed at how much effort he was putting in, and how lame he looked. Well, they were cheered up in the end so it did not matter that much.   
  
Today, Akihiko got into a street fight to protect a dog from a few drunk men that were bullying it. Akihiko’s heart is still in the right place, even if his brain has disappeared somewhere. His heart will always be his strongest mustcle.  
  
Today, he watched Fuuka from a bookstore. She was working on writing a letter to one of her dear friends in highschool. When she left the store, the stationary and books she had bought were too much and he offered to carry it for her. Even if she did not recognize his face, she mentioned once again there was always a boy like him who offered to carry things for her when it got too tough.   


Today, Ken kicked the winning goal in his soccer game. Apparently he did this a lot because he was quite smug about it. Koromaru was happy regardless as the team mascot he got just as much praise as Ken did.    
  
Today, as he was walking home he glanced for a moment to see Yukari’s image flash across the screen. He stared at her, as she seemed to dance across the line of televisions, and then, smiling to himself he continued walking. 

  
Mitsuru soon after reuniting with Minato, moved out of the Kirijo household. She claimed she needed the space to decide on her own life, after devoting the last three years entirely to the Kirijo conglomerate. 

She rented a small dorm that was just large enough for two people, though she told nobody of the second tenant who was legally dead sharing such a small space with her. The two of them lived together almost like they were normal college students sharing their lives together.

  
However, Mitsuru is still quite busy and spends most of the day away. Minato often left and wandered around like that to distract himself from an empty household. He had always lived alone though, so things like cooking and cleaning came easy to him.    
  
Every day Mitsuru would walk in, and whatever he was doing he looked up and smiled at her. “Welcome home.”   
  
“I’m home.” She would say back at him. 

  
He never thought he would be part of a household where such a simple and warm exchange took place every day. 

 

Today, he loomed over her taller than her after a growth spurt during death. However, the apron he was still wearing, and the way he had let his hair grow out to almost touch his shoulders while still being parted to cover one eye made him look a little less intimidating.    
  
“Don’t go out to hunt shadows late tonight.”   
  
“You always say that.”   
  
“Well yes, but I especially mean it tonight. I need your help studying.”   
  
College entrance exams.    
  
Tonight, the two of them would study and plan their future together. Even after missing out on three years of his life he planned to start again from scratch. 

  
Eventually he might just disappear. His friends might come to hate him when he told them who he really was.    
  
As he sat next to her studying, Minato’s expression sank for a moment. “I feel like after coming back, all I’ve ever done is burden you. Did it hurt? Did it hurt too much seeing me again?”

“It hurt more than anything else.”   
  
“Ah, Mitsuru’s completely ruthless as usual.”   
  
She reached forward and intertwined her fingers with his. “This pain though is what living is all about. When we’re dead the pain can stop, until then let’s live tying up our burdens in one another.”

That was right, as long as they were together they could face it come what may. 


End file.
